AuzenTech X-plosion 7.1 Sound Card - DolbyDigital AND DTS

[BenJeremy]

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: BenJeremy

Originally posted by: imaheadcase
It should be noted this card is NOT good for gaming.

The chipset does not support openAL for vista. The company has no plans to offer it..straight from the horses mouth from email i sent them..

"This is our request that we need to support OpenAL for our sound card. But C-Media, the chipset maker, still hesitates to support this OpenAL."

Why does this make it bad for gaming, again?

Let's see... DDL is my biggest checklist item on a sound card. I have plenty of CPU and GPU, and just because a card doesn't support OpenAL for Vista, does not mean it won't run in Vista and run well enough to play top flight games.

Creative's bloated and sloppy drivers are enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone the fact that they REFUSE to get on the DDL bandwagon and give us clean, digital audio transport to our home theater receivers. I supported Creative since my first GameBlaster on a PC XT - over 15 years ago, but I liked my X-Mystique so much, I got one for the HTPC I built. I play the big games just fine on my system (Clawhammer 3700+ 7800GS, 1GB RAM, 20" WS LCD @1680x1050).

But hey, this is a card for people who don't want the hassle of a multiple cable, analog connection snaking through their AC and other cables, introducing noise. We've been doing that for almost a decade now, since 5.1 cards came out, and it's about time we started utilizing TOSLink or Coax digital connections like our $29 DVD Player does.

Most importantly, it's just fine for gaming.

Modern systems have pretty much rendered CPU utilization of sound cards down to a foot note in benchmarks, when it comes down to it... and until people get behind DDL technology, Creative and others won't have any impetus to get on the ball with it and develop truly new, useful technology.

/Tired of Creative's lame SoundBlaster Live rehashes
//Wasn't going to rant, but saw one too many idiotic "Not good for gaming" posts

i have really been contemplating this card for the fact that it passes dd or dts (1.5Mb/s ) over the toslink cable. since i am in the process of upgrading my ht receiver i will have an extra denon unit on hand that does dd/dts decoding, just looking for a good deal on some smaller paradigm satellites and possibly a velodyne sub for my computer room.

without the openal support, what does this mean for vista and this card? the only reason i ask is because i have been running onboard sound forever, but since i will be going to a true ht receiver i figured it would be nice to step up the sound card as well. is everybody saying this card just won't work when vista comes out? not that i am hyped about vista and probably won't upgrade for some time i would hate to have the first sound card i purchased in over 7yrs to not work with an os upgrade that will come whether i like it or not...

From what I read into this, it means that hardware DirectSound 3D support will not be available.

I don't know that this means a whole lot, as I don't think there is a lot of hardware level stuff going on to support 3D sound, and there's always been a software emulation layer. You'll still get sound... you'll still get 3D sound, but it might chew up some CPU cycles under Vista (probably one more reason not to move into Vista for a few years)

So the short answer is everything will still work, just some platforms may see performance issues (I think it's just as likely ANY platform will see performance issues under Vista).

 

[mmx]

I have the card and its awesome.
What better for tv and movies? DTS OR DOLBY DIGITAL?

 

[Slick5150]

DTS is technically better as its compressed less, so if your receiver supports it, you might as well use it.

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: Slick5150
DTS is technically better as its compressed less, so if your receiver supports it, you might as well use it.

especially with this card if you use the dts encoding since it does it at a much higher rate than a normal dts track on a dvd (about double)

 

[imaheadcase]

Originally posted by: BenJeremy

Originally posted by: imaheadcase
It should be noted this card is NOT good for gaming.

The chipset does not support openAL for vista. The company has no plans to offer it..straight from the horses mouth from email i sent them..

"This is our request that we need to support OpenAL for our sound card. But C-Media, the chipset maker, still hesitates to support this OpenAL."

Why does this make it bad for gaming, again?

Let's see... DDL is my biggest checklist item on a sound card. I have plenty of CPU and GPU, and just because a card doesn't support OpenAL for Vista, does not mean it won't run in Vista and run well enough to play top flight games.

Creative's bloated and sloppy drivers are enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone the fact that they REFUSE to get on the DDL bandwagon and give us clean, digital audio transport to our home theater receivers. I supported Creative since my first GameBlaster on a PC XT - over 15 years ago, but I liked my X-Mystique so much, I got one for the HTPC I built. I play the big games just fine on my system (Clawhammer 3700+ 7800GS, 1GB RAM, 20" WS LCD @1680x1050).

But hey, this is a card for people who don't want the hassle of a multiple cable, analog connection snaking through their AC and other cables, introducing noise. We've been doing that for almost a decade now, since 5.1 cards came out, and it's about time we started utilizing TOSLink or Coax digital connections like our $29 DVD Player does.

Most importantly, it's just fine for gaming.

Modern systems have pretty much rendered CPU utilization of sound cards down to a foot note in benchmarks, when it comes down to it... and until people get behind DDL technology, Creative and others won't have any impetus to get on the ball with it and develop truly new, useful technology.

/Tired of Creative's lame SoundBlaster Live rehashes
//Wasn't going to rant, but saw one too many idiotic "Not good for gaming" posts

Im glad you talked yourself into reason why its good..

 

[bob4432]

Originally posted by: BenJeremy

Originally posted by: bob4432

Originally posted by: BenJeremy

Originally posted by: imaheadcase
It should be noted this card is NOT good for gaming.

The chipset does not support openAL for vista. The company has no plans to offer it..straight from the horses mouth from email i sent them..

"This is our request that we need to support OpenAL for our sound card. But C-Media, the chipset maker, still hesitates to support this OpenAL."

Why does this make it bad for gaming, again?

Let's see... DDL is my biggest checklist item on a sound card. I have plenty of CPU and GPU, and just because a card doesn't support OpenAL for Vista, does not mean it won't run in Vista and run well enough to play top flight games.

Creative's bloated and sloppy drivers are enough to drive anyone crazy, let alone the fact that they REFUSE to get on the DDL bandwagon and give us clean, digital audio transport to our home theater receivers. I supported Creative since my first GameBlaster on a PC XT - over 15 years ago, but I liked my X-Mystique so much, I got one for the HTPC I built. I play the big games just fine on my system (Clawhammer 3700+ 7800GS, 1GB RAM, 20" WS LCD @1680x1050).

But hey, this is a card for people who don't want the hassle of a multiple cable, analog connection snaking through their AC and other cables, introducing noise. We've been doing that for almost a decade now, since 5.1 cards came out, and it's about time we started utilizing TOSLink or Coax digital connections like our $29 DVD Player does.

Most importantly, it's just fine for gaming.

Modern systems have pretty much rendered CPU utilization of sound cards down to a foot note in benchmarks, when it comes down to it... and until people get behind DDL technology, Creative and others won't have any impetus to get on the ball with it and develop truly new, useful technology.

/Tired of Creative's lame SoundBlaster Live rehashes
//Wasn't going to rant, but saw one too many idiotic "Not good for gaming" posts

i have really been contemplating this card for the fact that it passes dd or dts (1.5Mb/s ) over the toslink cable. since i am in the process of upgrading my ht receiver i will have an extra denon unit on hand that does dd/dts decoding, just looking for a good deal on some smaller paradigm satellites and possibly a velodyne sub for my computer room.

without the openal support, what does this mean for vista and this card? the only reason i ask is because i have been running onboard sound forever, but since i will be going to a true ht receiver i figured it would be nice to step up the sound card as well. is everybody saying this card just won't work when vista comes out? not that i am hyped about vista and probably won't upgrade for some time i would hate to have the first sound card i purchased in over 7yrs to not work with an os upgrade that will come whether i like it or not...

From what I read into this, it means that hardware DirectSound 3D support will not be available.

I don't know that this means a whole lot, as I don't think there is a lot of hardware level stuff going on to support 3D sound, and there's always been a software emulation layer. You'll still get sound... you'll still get 3D sound, but it might chew up some CPU cycles under Vista (probably one more reason not to move into Vista for a few years)

So the short answer is everything will still work, just some platforms may see performance issues (I think it's just as likely ANY platform will see performance issues under Vista).

thanks, by the time i go to vista i am sure i will be running a kentsfield or whatever quad core is reasonable at the time so i am not to worried about cpu cycles

 

[Abel007]

This card is awesome. I have been using on-board sound for years, but after using this card in World of Warcraft, Call of Heroes, and NWN2, I can say I hope I never have to switch back again! I have experienced no crashes, no hic-ups, nor anything else out of the ordinary. One thing I have noticed (mainly in WoW) is the ambient sound. It is simply amazing. Sending DTS to my receiver is flawless and I highly recommend this card.

 

[sumrtym]

Originally posted by: BenJeremy
From what I read into this, it means that hardware DirectSound 3D support will not be available.

If I got this card, it's to use DTS / DDL encoding anyway, so to me this is an absolute non-issue with this card.

 

[BionicSniper]

Anyone who is more worried about the framerates than the audio quality... needs a better computer.

I have this card running to my HT system (computer speakers suck) In DTS for games but when im doing anything with audio stuff (music, audio editing, REASON studio, Movies, ect) im useing the analog out for which i have upgraded to opamps which is another HUGE plus for this card.


There is nothing that creative has on any of auzentech's cards.